(107 Kbytes)View of Rue de la Mare (photo from publication with pictures of old Paris)
Chayt Family Domiciles
What the living conditions were like in Nikolayev and in Paris (A collection of descriptions of the places the Chayt family lived from Nikolayev to Paris excerpted from the narratives)
Dave Chayt provides the only description
of the family's home in
Nikolayev*:
In the house in Nikolayev , there was no electric. The only
electric was in the streets. The lights had like two candles, and
the electricity would light them very bright. Nikolayev was a big
industrial city. There was a tremendous factory, that they called
the French factory. Then there was a fire, about 1906, and the
factory burned down. Transportation was by horse-drawn vehicles.
The trolleys were drawn by horses. Sometimes they let the cars go
empty to the depot, and we kids would take a free ride. I
remember the cars running without horses. It must have been
downhill.
In Paris
Jules Chayt writes;
We first lived on Rue des Amandiers #36 where (1912) Yvette was
born; we later moved to Rue des Amandiers #88 where (1914)
Pauline was born. We moved again to a larger place--this time to
49 Rue de la Mare, where we stayed until we came to the United
States of America. At this apartment, which was elegant by the
standards at that time, we had as follows:
A store on the street level, a cellar (where Zaida used to store
stuff), plus 3 rooms upstairs, a kitchen, a living room (in the
daytime, a bedroom at night), and a regular bedroom plus an attic
on the second floor, where we stored lots of oldies and goodies).
(Zaida also loved to make pickled watermelons and make kosher
wine for the holidays.) We had windows in every room and a window
in the hallway leading to the attic so that we had cross
ventilation. The kitchen faced the courtyard where the janitor
and his family lived. Opposite was the bakery warehouse where the
baker kept his flour and chopped wood that he used in the bakery
in front of the house. In the rear (sort of center) was the
outhouse (male and female), not fancy but practical. Also there
was the water pump, our only source of drinking water. Farther
back were two more apartments occupied by the family Gerlach and
family Meunier.
Yvette Levine writes:
Thinking back on the apartment we lived in, on Rue de la Mare ,
and comparing the luxury apartments in this day and age in the
United States, it really is hard for anyone to visualize what we
had in Paris. However, to us it was home, and we enjoyed what we
had. Try to visualize walking into a kitchen with a coal stove,
no running water, no cabinets, etc., a small table in a corner
with a pitcher and bowl to wash in. The dining room, which also
served as a bedroom at night, consisted of two large benches, a
makeshift table, consisting of two horses and one large board for
the top, and four chairs. The bedroom with a double dresser,
marble top, a fireplace, and one double bed, plus a folding bed
behind the door was where Estelle and I slept. Then Pauline
joined us when she was too big to sleep with Mama and Papa. In
1922, we had electricity put in the apartment. I remember it was
on the dining room near the kitchen; it was a white round enamel
piece: The switch was in the center. It was a thrill for everyone
to see, and how bright it made the room.
Dave Chayt's recollection of the apartments in Paris:
In Paris, my brother, Maurice, had prepared an apartment there.
In Russia, Maurice and Jacques had been known by their Jewish
names, Moise and Yankel. In France they were known as Moses and
Yaacov. When we came there, I remember 32 Rue Des Amandiers. You
would go inside a yard and there were a couple of houses there.
In the back, upstairs, I think there were 3 rooms. There was a
very long room with windows toward the yard. When you opened them
you could see the machines standing there. And Maurice had 3
people working for him in the shoe trade. Like I said, he was
subcontracting the shoes, . . We did not have electric, but the
better class did. My father, when he worked in the shoe line,
used to get shoe polish. I used to go to , and they had steam
radiators there. In our house, we had a mantel with a gas lamp.
It would give out , lighter than an electric bulb. It was like a
metal that went up on top, and you could not touch it. If you
touch it, it breaks. It was very thin. We did not have electric
or water in the house. Others had everything there. Of course, it
was not as modern as here, but they had beautiful homes.
Click on thumbnail picture to see
(bigger) PICTURE
(107 Kbytes)
View of Rue de la Mare (photo from publication with pictures of
old Paris)
Click on thumbnail picture to see
(bigger) PICTURE
( 93Kbytes)
49 Rue de la Mare entrance as seen just before its demolition in
the 1970's
In the U.S.
Zaida, who was a good provider, had secured a seven-room apartment in a beautiful area called Coney Island, a famous beach resort for middle class people. This apartment had a private bathroom, running water and a large kitchen, four bedrooms, living and dining room, also a porch on the outside. ``We went out on the porch and saw the world.'' The seashore was two blocks away, a clean beach and a wide boardwalk. This was paradise.
* Nikolayev - the current spelling (according to the CIA World Fact Book - 2004) - is Mykolayiv. -- I have left the spelling as Nikolayev since that is closer to correct for the time. i.e. the city was named for Czar Nicholas - probably something the previous Soviet regime preferred not to remember.
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